Rich Reward

UV 628/10,000 Rich Reward “ May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2 v 12 The Lord God is no man’s debtor. He is quick to reward whomever, whenever and wherever He sees faithfulness. Ruth clung to her husband’s people even though death had separated her from her husband. She continued to serve Naomi, her hapless mother-in-law who had lost both her husband and her sons. Ruth could have thought like most people do to this day that some curse afflicts Naomi and left her lest it affect her further. But, she swore her allegiance and said, “ Your people will be my people and your God my God.” She continued to serve Naomi by gleaning grain from the fields of Boaz to feed her mother- in -law and herself. Boaz had heard about Ruth’s faithfulness and was impressed. He blessed her with this uni-verse. The rest is history. Boaz being her redeemer-kinsman married Ruth and out of their wedlock was born the forebears of the Messiah. Ruth was the good root in the family tree. She enjoyed a status of a refugee, an alien, less than the servants of Boaz. Yet the Lord saw her faith and rewarded her by enabling her to find grace in the eyes of Boaz to become his wife. When we take refuge under the two wings of faith: prayer and the Word of God, we will be greatly blessed. When we obey the Word and act in faith, we will be richly rewarded. Even if we give a glass of cold water to refresh a disciple of Christ or even in the name of Christ, we will be rewarded. The Lord will send us times of refreshing. The greater the proportion of our faith, the richer will be the reward. There are two types of reward: reward on earth and reward in heaven. Whenever we do an act or say something in faith, it is an investment in the Kingdom of God. There are no secret kick-backs but huge and visible payback. This has been the experience of my life: I gave the Queen of the UK a Bible as a gift and the Lord paid me back with the Queen’s Award worth GBP 15,000! God used Boaz, the very man who blessed Ruth in this manner to be her greatest reward- the source of her sustenance and fulfillment of purpose in life. He first gave her his patronage, protection and the right to glean from his fields. He then accepted her hand in marriage. Similarly, the Lord gives us His patronage, protection and the right to glean from His spiritual fields, the 66 books of the Bible. Gleaning is an activity that needs to be done daily and not once in a way. As I glean from the Scriptures day after day, He uses it to feed a lot of believers as well as seekers world-wide even as my own spiritual hunger and thirst is satisfied. As He draws us closer and closer, we will enjoy a relationship closer than any marriage can lead up to. The very presence of the Lord in our lives is our richest reward. From that reward will flow a cornucopia of rewards, temporal and eternal. Prateep V Philip